MAY DAY of Action for Education! #OccupyEDU

Today all over the country students, educators, parents and community members are taking part in the May Day of Action. There are many ways to support this day of action. One way is to make your voice heard online. Today we will be collecting blog posts and twitter/facebook status message and pictures and posters in support of this day of action for education. Please joins us in a Blogger March, our collective vision and collective voice for real education transformation is important and powerful!

Here are a few ways you can take part:

Join your local general strike by not going to school, or work, and by not shopping or banking!

Join a protest locally or regionally! Many student and teacher lead walk outs are happening all over the country.

Go into the commons! Used public spaces to host conversations around education transformation or direct democracy.

Unschool your children or yourself for the day, Learn something you are passionate about, that you are not tested on, that is not found in a text book.

Share with us your stories of powerful learning in community. Take a picture of yourself holding a sign that highlights a few ways you are transforming education and/or share the countless, unique ways you help to keep democracy alive in public education. If you are a student, tell us what helps you learn best. Tell us what would make learning more meaningful for you. If you are a parent, tell us what kind of learning environment you want for your children. Tell us what schools should be focusing on.Below that, write “I occupy education.” or “I occupy my classroom” If you don’t show your whole face, please show at least part of it. Please have your note be hand written. Please do your best to be concise. Reclaim your voice in education transformation.

Share your voice via a blog post and make public why you Occupy Education!

Bring up education at your workplace, or school, or class, or any place your gather today.

As we stand up to rally on the steps of city hall or at the Department of Education, or at school board meetings or state capitals, let us rally for a Transformed education, for a positive vision of learning, for education and learning that matters.

Let’s use our energy and our coming together to OPT IN to what we want our education to look like, and start to collectively move both locally and nationally towards these visions.

Discussion

6 thoughts on “MAY DAY of Action for Education! #OccupyEDU”

There are pockets of hope everywhere.

One place I have been hanging out a little lately is EarthWalk Vermont, an inspiring learning village on the land for children and elders and others. I invite all to examine their work if you care about intergenerational learning communities that are rooted on our connection to the land. IDEA will bring educators there on the morning of May 17 in their school visits of innovation. Their “Vision Keeper” and “Dream Maker” is Angella Gibbons. Her vision is about mentoring and with one essential principle, we create and sustain together. Today on May Day and Occupy Education, I applaud EarthWalk Vermont and the long and sustained effort that has gone into this learning village. Here are the linkshttp://earthwalkvermont.org/

Another pocket of hope is the learning community Goddard College’s Education Program has created in Seattle. Like EarthWalk this initiative came from a sustained effort over six years. EDU Seattle enters its third semester of its low residency community based BA and MA program on July 28. I left the first two residencies, saying this is the way the world needs to be, an diverse and authentic learning community that crosses race, ethnicity, class, gender, age and language. “Goddard has been invited by community elders to create an inner city campus at the heart of Columbia City,” the most culturally diverse zip code in America, says Goddard faculty member Theressa Lenear. This groundbreaking partnership arose between Goddard and thirteen Seattle groups, including Southside Commons and the Center for Linguistic and Cultural Democracy.

I would like to ask CoopCatalysters to help me. Next Monday, I have been asked to give a “speech” to 3-5 grade age students in order to pump them up for their upcoming state standardized test week. I agreed to do this only if I did not have to mention the name of the test, the word “test” or anything to do with grading the test. I am supposed to speak on the topic of PERSEVERANCE.

I am asking for your help in writing the speech. I would like to incorporate your words into this speech, I want them to know that folks like you are persevering in your efforts to dismantle the system, bring back joy and humanity in learning and listen to student’s voices. I want them to know that gumption and stick-to-it-ness helps make the world go around and sometimes stop for a while to spin in a new direction.

I will share the final product this weekend. So, post your thoughts or suggest some words..just don’t use the word “test”

I wish we all knew where (names of 11 students in the school) were going to live when they were older. The we could see all that they performed, invented, produced and gave to their communities and places. And we could find out what they had learned so that they could do what they did.

What if, 25 years from now, we could all talk to (name of 11 more students). We could ask each of them how they made the world a better place. I would want to know if all they words they read and all the questions they asked and answered helped to make their and our dreams come true.

I wish I could hear (11 more names) talking to their husbands or wives, their children, their neighbors, the people that they work with and their friends. Do you think their lives are full of mysteries and marvels, possibilities and promises, hearts and hopes? Do they remember how many days it took them to open their doors into the world?

Who will write a book? Who will save a life? Be a computer programmer? Who will build a bridge? Who will sing a song? Who will help the poor? Be a mayor or governor? Who will coach a team? Who will teach? Who will be a business person? Who will be a chef? Will it be (11 more names) What did all of them do to understand so much and love their jobs.

If we read a newspaper or watch TV, when will we find out that (11 more names) did something creative, surprising or challenging? They will remind all of us to always asks lots of questions, that wrong answers are sometimes just as important as right answers, and that hearts and minds take a life-time.

Every day, somebody, somewhere, somehow, will write, think,say, read, or do something that will make themselves, their family, their neighborhood, their city, their county, their state, their country, their world, their galaxy and the universe better, safer, smarter, stronger, friendlier, more beautiful, cleaner and more humane. If you don’t believe me just ask (11 more names) because that is what they, like all of you, are planning to do in your lives. And you all are planning right now with some really good people (teacher’s names)

So, on behalf of everybody, everything and everywhere, I want to thank each of you for all you are going to do.